What are the dominant mobile and smartphone trends today?

There is one phrase that probably sums up the trends in mobile and smartphone growth – and that is”incredible increase”. We have collated some statistics on mobile trends as well as the growth in the smartphone market that, together, send an important message to web promoters, marketers and SEO enthusiasts.

According to the latest statistics there are 3.13 billion global Internet users. This figure includes both desktop as well as mobile usage. However there is “… one driving force behind global Internet growth (nearly 43% of the world now has Internet access) and you guessed it, it is mobile”, and there are 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide.(http://marketingland.com/12-mobile-marketing-stats-need-know-129494) Another telling statistic is that ” out of the billions of global mobile users and subscriptions is that 1.91 billion of those have smartphones” and it is estimated that the number of smartphone users will reach two billion by 2018. This has certain implications for marketers and advertisers. For example, one should look at the number of smartphone users as compared non-smartphone users in a country or region to determine whether an SMS or text based marketing campaign would be effective.

So what are smartphone users doing with their mobile devices?

It is clear from the statistics that they are spending a great deal of time on social media. In fact, “…there are nearly as many active mobile social accounts in the world — 1.68 billion — as there are smartphones, according to a recent global digital snapshot published by We Are Social. This number is led by global phenomenon WeChat, with Facebook a close second”.(http://marketingland.com/12-mobile-marketing-stats-need-know-129494) In other words, social media is playing a major role in the mobile arena and all marketers and website owners should be aware of this interaction between social and mobile.

The first infographic below looks at mobile and the future of marketing. An important indicator of where things are going is that in the US an estimated 8 billion dollars will be spent on mobile advertising.